The Triple Constraint

There’s a saying:

Good, fast, or cheap—you can have it any way you want, but you can only pick two.

• Want something high quality and fast? It won’t be cheap.
• Want something high quality and low cost? It won’t be fast.
• Want something cheap and fast? Don’t expect it to be good.

This is known as the Project Management Triangle, or Triple Constraint. The idea is simple: if you improve one element, something else has to give.

It’s most commonly applied to project delivery but I think it applies just as well to business strategy, branding, even positioning.

Picking Your Two

What we don’t always consider is the importance of knowing which two matter most to us, and optimizing for them with intention. You could even pick just one.

In project management, maybe you bounce between all three depending on the timeline. But in a market strategy? It’s much better pick a lane.

Chocolate & Cars

To’ak Chocolate makes $400+ chocolate bars using rare cacao and small-batch methods.
Meanwhile Hershey’s cranks out billions of affordable bars every year.
Two chocolate companies. Two totally different strategies.

Now take Ferrari and General Motors. According to some quick research:

• Ferrari produced ~13,600 vehicles in 2023, generating $6.46B in revenue.
• GM produced ~2.6 million vehicles, bringing in $171.8B.

Ferrari sells fewer units at a much higher price, quality, and performance ($472K avg vs. $66K).
GM wins on scale and accessibility.
Each has optimized for different tradeoffs, intentionally.

Where It Goes Wrong

You get in trouble when you try to do all three.
That’s what happened to Jaguar in the early 2000s.

The X-Type was supposed to be a premium, affordable, high-volume vehicle.
But the mix diluted the product. Quality suffered. Service departments couldn’t keep up. Customer satisfaction tanked. The brand’s reputation took a hit it still hasn’t fully recovered from.

Final Thought

Success rarely comes from doing everything.

It comes from deciding what you’ll do exceptionally well, and aligning everything else around that choice.

As Seth Godin wisely said:

“Don’t try to appeal to everyone; you can’t be all things to all people. Be specific. Be authentic. And then, your tribe will find you.“

So choose your lane.
Optimize for it.
Let that clarity shape your strategy.

🔗 Let’s connect! linkedin.com/in/scottschoeneberger.